


The Queen and her Chief Hermetic Scribe

by rachel6141997



Category: Septimus Heap-Angie Sage
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Jeetle, Jenna finally wises up, canonical up to Fyre b/c it hasn't come out yet, is Jeetle an actual ship name?, it sounds horrible, oh the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-30
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2017-11-17 09:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/550227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachel6141997/pseuds/rachel6141997
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beetle moves on.<br/>Jenna grows up.</p>
<p>The Time is Right. (and not for Jenna to become Queen.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Queen and her Chief Hermetic Scribe

**Author's Note:**

> Too tired of waiting for someone else to write a Heap fic, so I did it myself.
> 
> And of course it doesn't fit with Fyre, the book hasn't come out yet, so just DEAL WITH IT.

***OBB***

 

Beetle forgets, for a while.

He forgets Jenna Heap, with her smile and her loyalty and her bravery. He wants to forget, when he remembers how she disappeared so soon after his revival. It helps that Syrah feels so lost, and she is closer to his age (emotionally, at least, and her experience of the Castle all those years ago is fascinating, especially to Beetle The Chief Hermetic Scribe) and she is at least as pretty as the Princess (Queen) Who Didn't Care.

And it's all right. Jenna is only fourteen, after all.

Time passes. Jenna grows into a beautiful young woman, but he doesn't really care, because Syrah is his friend and he begins to wonder if she might be something more. She spends a lot of time with him and Septimus, and he knows Sep likes her, but for once he doesn't care, because much as he loved Sep, the seventh son of a seventh son can freakin' find someone else.

He forgets why he liked Jenna so much in the first place.

 

***JH***

 

Jenna doesn't notice, at first.

She is too busy cleaning up after the  **Darke Domain** , and ridding the Castle of the Two Faced Ring. But, surely enough, she begins to see that Beetle no longer jumps at a chance to accompany her, no longer blushes or stammers in her presence, no longer shrinks into the backround. If she compliments him, he laughs, smiles, and shrugs it off.

She doesn't mind. It was beginning to get boring, anyway. And she's only fourteen.

Jenna is crowned Queen, and the Castle celebrates. Beetle smiles and congratualtes her, and then turns and spends the rest of the night talking to the newly recovered Syrah Syara. She feels a little pang, a little neglected, but she pushes that away and laughs with Septimus.

Time passes. Jenna grows into a young woman, with curves and long hair and more than a passing interest in the opposite gender. At seventeen, for the first time she notices that Beetle is fairly good looking, with his chocolate brown eyes and wavy dark hair and cheerful smile. She also realizes that she is not the only one who has noticed this, Syrah among them. Septimus too, grows older and begins to notice girls. Despite the rumors, Jenna and Sep are and always will be brother and sister, and she listens gloomily as he sings praises about Syrah, with her perfect face and hair and heavy curves and way of walking. Jenna knows that Syrah is actually quite nice, and oblivious of her attraction to the male populus, but she feels a curling spike of jealousy anyway.

She doesn't notice that she has her own crowd of followers, who don't look at her because she isn't just the Queen, she is beautiful and kind and has a wicked sense of humor. Even is she is a bit of  a snob.

 

***SH***

 

Sarah has eight children, and loves everyone, no matter what they do.

She loves Simon when he does such horrible things, and Sam when he announces that he will never marry, because he isn't very interested in such things, and Jo-Jo, Erik, and Edd when they leave her to stay in the forest, and Nikki when he disappears to the boatyard then disappears for real then comes back and disappears to the boatyard again.

She loves Septimus when he comes back after ten years, and through everything that hsppens later.

She loves Jenna like her own daughter, because she is no matter who gave birth to her, even when Jenna messes up her relationship with Beetle.

 

Sarah quite likes Beetle. He is respectful and polite and talented and smart and not a wizard, which is why he would suit Jen perfectly. She holds her tongue when Jenna ignores Beetle, reminding herself that she's still only fourteen. She holds her tongue when Beetle gives up on her, reminding herself that speaking to Jenna can hardly help now.

But when Jenna scowls and calls Syrah bad names, she puts her foot down, dragging the seventeen year old and setting her down in a chair. Silas takes one glance at her and disappears, a box of counterfeet under his arm. Sarah pointedly ignores him.

 

"You will  _not_ call anyone that name in my presence, epecially not one of your friends. Do you hear me young lady?" Jenna flushes angrily, and looks away. Sarah frowns. Jenna looks back at her sullenly.

"She is not my friend."

"If you keep calling her names like that, I should think so. Listen, sweetie, if you care about someone in that way, it won't help if you make fun of someone who likes him too. That just makes you seem unkind." Jenna gapes at her.

"How-" Sarah rolls her eyes.

"I was a girl, too, you know," she said fondly, and Jenna cracks a smile.

They spend the rest of the afternoon talking about boys, girls, and one boy in particular.

 

***MO***

 

Marcia isn't blind to unrequited crushes on dashing young men.

After all, she experienced one herself, dreaming about Milo Bando even as he smiled his charming smile at Queen Cerys. She quite likes Jenna, and likes Beetle more, and she feels that Syrah would suit Septimus so much better, so, being Marcia, she decides to interfere.

After all, interfering is what Marcia Overstrand does best.

So she stops by the Manusctriptorium one day and invites Beetle for tea, which isn't really an unusual occurence (she really does like Beetle). He arrives right on time (which is an unusual occurence, because Beetle is not Jillie Djinn, and does not have her penchant for being perfectly on time, another reason why Marcia likes him so much). They talk about work, and then about regular news, and then end up discussing gossip. Marcia would never admit to doing something so mundane as gossiping; but then, if you had told her ten years ago that she would be gossiping with the CHS who would be half her age, she would have thought you insane. And besides, she is gossiping with an agenda.

 

She smiles, and says slyly, "I hear you have quite a group of admirers, these days, Beetle." He blushes.

"So I'm told, although to be frank, I'm not really interested in anyone... except maybe Syrah," he says, shyly, circling his hands around his teacup. Marcia laughs.

"I see a little of the Beetle of three years ago in there, my friend." He blushes again, and then laughs, regaining his now customary confidence.

"I was awkwardly shy then, wasn't I?"

"Yes. Are you serious about Syrah, then?" Marcia asks, hiding the twinge of worry she feels. If he is, that would not do. It would not do at all.

"I don't really know, to be honest. I'm think I like her, but I'm not sure how she feels." Marcia nodds wisely, and vows to arrange him spending as much time with Jenna as possible.

 

To Marcia's everlasting shame, they moved on to gossip about Marcellus, and his sudden interest in hanging around Sally's cafe, performing favors for the cheerful matron.

 

***OBB***

 

Beetle finds himself sitting across from Queen Jenna at Septimus's Wizard Feast. He has finished his apprenticeship, and been honored with the title of Ordinary Wizard. Sep is seated at the head of the table, with Syrah on his right and his mother, Sarah on his left.  Marcia is at the foot, and Beetle is on her left and Jenna at her right. It’s the traditional setup (The ExtraOrdinary Wizard flanked by the CHS and the Queen, the new Wizard at the other end with his family and friends), but somehow, looking at Marcia’s blinding, cheerful smile, he wonders what she has up her sleeve.

He doesn’t spend much more time wondering, because he hasn’t really _talked_ to Jenna in ages, and he finds that she is a lot of fun, and he begins to remember why he liked her so much in the first place. He finds himself watching her throughout the night, smiling when she smiled, noticing for the first time how beautiful the Queen is.

He doesn’t notice Marcia’s triumphant smile.

 

***Narrator***

 

I must say, it’s fairly obvious what happens. Beetle slowly falls for Jenna again, and Jenna’s interest turns to love for this brilliant man who make her laugh and is willing to risk himself for the Castle, the Tower, and the Manuscriptorium.

Everything should be perfect….except.

Syrah still likes Beetle, unreasonably so, and she doesn’t take kindly to the Queen waltzing in and taking her beau without so much as a by your leave.

And then there’s Sep, who, frankly, deserves love too. Don’t you think?

 

***SS***

 

Syrah doesn’t see, at first, that Beetle is slipping away. Not until she stops by the Manuscriptorium and sees Jenna already there, perched on the front desk and laughing at some joke of Beetle’s. (Despite his new position, Beetle had returned to his old desk, adopting a more hands on approach, only using the Hermetic Chamber for official appointments. He had once told Syrah that he never liked to be there after the desperate two days he had spent there during the **Darke Domain**.) The look on Beetle’s face as he watched Jenna was like a sock in the gut, because he used to look at her like that, and now the only person who does is Septimus. And Sep is Sep.

She walks out, oblivious to the way Beetle glances up sharply and Jenna frowns worriedly.

 

***SH***

 

Septimus is cornered by his best friend and his sister.

“Do you like Syrah?” Beetle asks, a little awkwardly. Septimus reddens and nodded, embarrassed. He is surprised by the way Beetle brightens and Jen rolls her eyes as if to say, _I told you so_.

“We have a plan, you see,” Jen confided, eyes sparkling. Septimus doesn’t fail to notice the way her arm is slung through Beetle’s. “We think Syrah belongs with you, and she needs a little help to see it.” Septimus doesn’t know what to say. He isn’t sure how he feels about his sister and his friend taking such a hand in his life, but he knows there’s really no stopping Jen when she gets going.

 

But he really wasn’t expecting to be locked in a closet with Syrah. Not that he’s really complaining, but wasn’t that taking it a bit too far?

Afterwards, when he mentions it, Jenna and Beetle look startled.

“But that’s not what we were thinking at all!” He doesn’t believe them, until, several days later, he finds the key to the closet where they were locked- on Marcia’s desk.

He laughs until he cries.

 

***JH***

 

Sep and Syrah’s wedding is beautiful. Sarah cries. Jenna cries. Jenna catches Marcia wiping her eyes discreetly. It’s perfect, but Jen can’t help but feel a little forlorn, because Beetle hasn’t even said he loved her yet.

During the reception, she slips out into the Long Walk, which is now decorated with more tasteful pieces than Milo’s original collection of the bizarre and creepy. She lingers in the line between candled and shadows, and when she feels his hand on her arm, she involuntarily gasps.

 

***OBB***

 

Eyes wide, startled, Jenna is beautiful, candlelight catching the glistening tear tracks that remain. Beetle feels that same, stirring sensation he gets every time he sees her, and gently lifts a hand to wipe her tears away.

“Jenna,” he says softly, smiling. She looks back at him, eyes still wide and staring. But she’s smiling as well.

“I know.” He laughs

“I didn’t even say so.”

“You don’t need to.”

“But I want too. I love you, my Queen.” Jenna’s smile grows wider.

“I love you too, my Chief Hermetic Scribe.”

“That’s a bit of a mouthful,” he whispers against her cheek.

“I don’t care,” she says, and kisses him.

He kisses her back, than pulls away and shows her the ring.

 

***SH***

 

Sarah is smiling at her youngest son, when her maternal instincts began tingling. She spared a glance around the room, and laughed, carefully noting the absence of the Queen and the Chief Hermetic Scribe.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, yes, this is absolutely terrible, but I don't care. If you don't like it, I dare you to write a better fic.
> 
> (and thus shall this fandom grow)
> 
> :)
> 
> And I don't care that the ending makes no sense.
> 
> Maternal tinglings? Yeah right. Oh well. It's called fan "fiction" for a reason.


End file.
